Everett looked around the kitchen. “Decided not to go grocery shopping? Good idea. We won’t have to lug it there.”
“That’s what I thought.” EO winked at Lilly.
Tony picked up Lilly as the LaRoches were sitting down to dinner. They went to the hospital, stopping at the information desk before going on to Two East. Lilly didn’t recognize anyone at the station, so she went on to Tanta’s room. Tanta was settled in bed, looking very small and vulnerable in this strange environment. Isabel was at her side.
“Tony, Lilly.” Isabel was glad to see familiar faces.
“Hi, Ma,” Tony said.
Lilly sat beside her and took Tanta’s hand.
Tanta asked, “Are you going to take my pulse too?”
“I must smell like a nurse.” Lilly smiled. “You look much better, IV’s work fast. Do you like it here? I used to work on this floor.”
Tanta said, “She’s a springy one, Isabel. I like her.”
A nurse walked in carrying an admission packet. “Here are your tissues, lotion, and powder. The aide will fill this water pitcher and give you cups. Try to drink. You should have got these yesterday.”
“Hello, Marie,” Lilly said.
“Hi,” Marie answered, and then recognized her. “Lilly? I haven’t seen you in years.”
“How are you Marie?”
“Fine. Still here. Myra’s off tonight. She would have loved to see you.”
“Is Myra still charge nurse?”
“Cluster leader.”
“We had clusters in Jamestown.”
“Are you still an aide?”
“I went to school. Do you know Carly Signore, an RN here? She was my roommate in school.”
“I know a Carly from western New York, but she’s Carly O’Dell. She works on One North. How long since you’ve seen her?”
“A couple of years.”
“She sits with us at five-thirty supper.”
“Is she on tonight?”
“I don’t know. I’m going to six-fifteen supper. I’ll call One North for you. Wait a second. She was your roommate? Isn’t that your husband? Wasn’t it a little crowded?”
“The more the merrier,” Tony said wickedly.
Marie nodded and said in a blasé tone, “Lilly, you were so sweet. I had no idea.”
She returned in a few minutes. “Carly is on tonight. It’s busy down there, but she asked me to have you wait.”
Tito was due to get Isabel at seven. As the clock hands moved toward seven, Lilly grew impatient.
Finally she said to Tony, “Let’s take off. I’ll catch Carly some other time.” Tony didn’t move.
A nurse’s aide walked into the room, “Are you Lilly della Robbia, or Lilly O’Dwyer, or Lilly somebody?”
Lilly answered, “I was, I am, I think so.”
The aide chuckled. “Carly O’Dell called and asked to make sure you’re waiting.”
“OK,” Lilly answered, noticing Tony’s smug expression.
Tito entered the room. He nodded acknowledgement to Tony and said, “Isabel are you ready?”
Tony nudged her to speak. Finally she said, “I was sorry to hear about Nunzio. I know you are close to your brothers.”
Tito said, “Family is important to Italians, but you never understood that.”
Lilly looked down.
Tony said gingerly, “The Yankees will be home next week, Pops. I’ll meet you at seven at the bat?”
Tito nodded.
Carly rushed in. “Lil,” she said, hugging her. “Lil, when did you come back from Cambodia?”
“Two, no three weeks ago,” Lilly answered, feeling the wind gone from her sails.
“Are you working yet?”
“Not anymore.”
“Good. Can you go to Jamestown? Now? Tomorrow? You can take my car. I’ll give you money for gas.”
“What?” Lilly was acutely aware that Tony’s family could hear.
“Lilly, it’s like you were sent here. You have to help.”
“Carly, what are you talking about?”
“Issy’s in trouble. Bad trouble. She’ll listen to you.”
“Is she pregnant?”
“No. God, that would be easier. This is crazy. It’s Gary.”
“Gary? Gary? What is Issy doing with a scuzzball like Gary?”
“It’s a long story. About a year ago, she had broken up with Ted again. She went out and met up with Gary. He sounded sweet and understanding. He told her he went after you because he was drunk and jealous. She went with him.”
“Issy and Gary. Yuk. That’s disgusting.”
“Isn’t it?” Carly agreed. “Anyway, I guess a few months ago, he beat her up. She left, but he went after her, all sorrowful and repentant.”
“And Issy forgave him?”
“Now he beats her all the time, I guess. She tried to leave him. He said he’d kill her. She’s so scared, it’s like she’s paralyzed. I’d go, but I don’t have two days in a row off for two weeks. I didn’t know he’d hit her since the first time. My mother called this morning. She was as close to hysteria as I’ve ever heard her. My mother asked about you. She thinks you could talk some sense into Issy. But I thought you were in Cambodia. Lilly, she’ll listen to you. You could get her out … to me. I’d take care of her. Lilly, please?” Carly asked.
“Carly, what is she doing with Gary. He’s always been crazy. He is the reason I quit the only decent band I was in in Jamestown. Carly, I don’t know if I can do anything to help her.”
“Lilly, do you remember that time? He would have beaten you if it weren’t for Issy and me. And that’s because you would not go out with him. She has to get away. Lilly, Gary already had knocked you unconscious. You were on the floor. He would have …”
“And you think he’s going to be intimidated by me?”
“No.” Carly was almost in tears. “You could stay with my mother and go to Issy when Gary’s not there. You could tell her to sneak out and leave her things. He broke most of her things anyway. My mother will give her money, and I have a little money too. We only have one bedroom, but she could stay on the sofa. I got married in October.”
Lilly flashed on Eileen. “OK, OK, I’ll go.”
Tony, who had been leaning on the window seat, stood. “Lil, you’ll have to wait until Friday. I’ll go with you.” He walked to her.
“Tony della Robbia, this is Carly Signore or O’Dell or somebody.”
“Oh, Lilly della Robbia?” Carly asked.
“I used to work with Marie. I didn’t correct her.”
Carly looked at Tony. “Basketball.”
Lilly said, “What?”
“All I ever heard you say about your husband was, once, you said he participated in collegiate sports. Somehow I pictured a track star. You remember, once your friend Eileen was visiting, and she said something about men in shorts.”
Lilly blushed.
Tony said, “Knowing EO, I’m sure that remark was wonderfully obscene.”
Carly wrote on a paper and handed it to Lilly. “Here’s my phone number and my mother’s and Issy’s. But don’t call there. Gary really hates you. He burned all your letters to Issy.”
“Except one,” Lilly said pointedly.
“Oh, I didn’t know. Mrs. della Robbia was so interested in you. Issy gave me the letter because she didn’t want Gary to see it. I have to get back downstairs. I’ve four admissions and a lady who should be in ICU.”
“I’ll call you.”
“I have off Thursday,” Carly said and left.
Tony touched her arm, “Lil, let’s go.”
Lilly turned to say to Isabel, Tanta, and Tito, “Bye. Take care.”
Tony said to Lilly as they walked down the hospital corridor, “Maybe your friend has had her rose-colored glasses knocked off. He could see the anger in her expression.“Lil, we’ll go on Friday morning. Is there anywhere to camp near Jamestown?”
Lilly didn’t acknowledge that. She didn’t speak until
they reached the car. “Gary and I were in a band. He’s a pig.”
“Certainly sounds like it. Why did he go after you?”
“He taught me how to ride a motorcycle, but I thought I paid him back by fixing him up with a slut. I guess he wanted more. I discouraged him, nicely I thought.… I told him I wasn’t ready to get involved with anyone. He became jealous when he saw me flirting with someone. He got stinking drunk and showed up at my house making a scene. Issy and Carly defended me. That’s what I don’t understand. He was so psycho and violent. Issy saw it. She hit him with a mop. How could she have anything to do with him? …and living with him … God! The thought of it is grotesque. It’s absurd.”
Tony said, “Do you remember Linus?”
“Linus, your roommate?”
“Yes. He told me his mother’s boyfriend beat her all the time. He was a little boy. He used to lie in bed and listen to it. It drove him crazy. Remember his girlfriend, Crystal?”
“A little.”
“The night before you left, I was with Linus. We watched movies and talked women problems. When he was upset with Crystal, he would repress his anger so much, he’d become impotent.”
“God, it makes you wonder if it’s worth it. I mean the way people hurt each other,” Lilly said sadly.
“Lil, you’re not going alone. This guy is a nut. Don’t you remember your days at St. Andrews?”
“Oh, God.… Tony that’s …. not the same, but you are right. I’m so glad you’ll be there. We can get my books and keyboards, too. Everything happens so fast here. Everything was so monotonous in Thailand. I was going to fry Carly’s ass for giving the letter to your parents and talking about me. Then …I never expected this.”
“Tell me about Issy,” Tony said as he parked the car.
Lilly followed Tony into the house and into the kitchen. She spoke while she made sandwiches and Tony made soup.
“Dizzy Issy is kind and sweet. She isn’t smart, but she’s wise and in ways, she sees things in people, motives everyone else misses. She cries at movies and even reruns on TV. Yet she was dead set against me going to Thailand. She’s attracted to men beneath her and thinks they are super because she thinks she is dumb.”
“I have a cousin like that, on my mother’s side. She stayed back and was always the dummy at family gatherings, but she always knew what to say if someone was upset. She’d know what was bothering them.”
“Exactly. Issy could be a pushover to a guy with a sad line and then feel like a slut in the morning.”
“Tell me about Carly.”
“Carly was a cheerleader who was scandalized by sex, drugs, and rock and roll. She loves her sister, even if Issy drives her crazy. Driving Carly crazy is really quite fun. Carly is a good nurse. She would make a good advocate for her patients.”
Tony smiled slightly, content to have found a less destructive way to siphon off some of Lilly’s anger. Lilly caught his smile and stopped speaking. Tony looked up from the juice he was making to see Lilly’s knowing smile.
“Listen, wise guy. Get out of here or these tuna sandwiches will be tuna shock.”
Tony bent down to kiss her. She hugged him tightly and then turned.
He said, “It’s too late tonight, but tomorrow you have to walk during the day with your pack. The trail’s tough, and you’re not, but you are looking better.”
“I’ve gained six pounds since I came home.”
“You’ll have to start drinking diet soda,” he said, measuring her waist with his hands. “Oh, yeah.”
“I want to gain six more. Then I’d weigh a hundred and two. That’s what an adult woman who’s five three and has a slight frame should weigh. I’ve never actually hit a hundred.”
Lilly dished out the supper, singing. Tony felt his guts grip as he remembered how he had missed her at dinnertime after she left.
Lilly heard more about Issy’s problems on Thursday when she visited Carly at her apartment. Fear crept over her as she heard the details.
“I met Tim about twenty months ago. He was visiting Kevin Clayton, who had the apartment next to me. They had gone to Brockport State together. We hit it off right away. He was from Yonkers and working in New York, so he was only there a few days. I kept thinking about Tim, but I thought I’d never see him again. Then last spring, I had a day off from work, and Tim came knocking on my door. We talked all day. Issy and I were sharing an apartment, a little apartment. Tim ended up staying all night.”
“Carly I’m shocked. You were always so … ,” Lilly teased.
“I know. I shocked myself. He was there all weekend. I became so involved with Tim and our wedding plans. Issy started seeing Gary about the time we were married. She moved in with him. She said something about Gary being jealous. I went home for Christmas. I thought Issy was too quiet, but I never had a chance to speak with her alone.
“I never knew he had hit her until a month ago when my mother told me Gary was treating Issy cruelly. I called her, but she said it was a one-time thing. Then I called her a few days ago, after my mother called me again, and she started crying. I told her to leave, but she said he would find her. He would hunt her down. Lilly he’s nuts. He has a gun. He shot a radio because it was playing a song he didn’t like. He won’t let her throw it out because he wants it to remind her. Don’t call her in case he answers. Call my mother.”
“Tony’s coming with me. We’ll go camping. I’ll get my books and keyboards from your parents’ basement.”
“Tony? How’d you two get together?”
“I came to Yonkers from Thailand to see Eileen, and I bumped into Tony. We ended up going to his place. I moved in. Now, we’re going to walk the Appalachian Trail. That’s it.”
“I always knew you were still in love with him.”
“How did you know?”
“We all knew. You cried for almost a year. That’s why we were all so upset with Lonnie when she played that joke on you.”
“How did you know about that? I never told anyone.”
“She bragged about it.”
“God, that was awful. She nailed me. I had this fantasy, dream wish he’d come for me,” Lilly said. “I thought I had been discreet with my feelings.”
Carly poured tea, “There was something Jane noticed. Anytime you’d say anything about him, you would say my husband. Do you remember the night, after our last final, Issy and Jane and you and me got drunk on those fruity concoctions?”
“I remember. Actually all I remember is the next day we went to apply for jobs at Jamestown Hospital. I had such a hangover!”
“You spoke about your husband when you were drunk.”
“Don’t torture me. What did I say?”
“We were talking about men. You said Adam didn’t have it. Then you said that wasn’t fair because after Tony it would seem like no one had it. You said ‘with my husband my whole body was an erogenous zone,’” Carly said, mimicking her.
Lilly groaned, then added impishly, “He hasn’t lost it.”
Carly laughed.
“And even if he isn’t anymore, he’s still my husband. He always will be,” Lilly added more seriously. “How did you and the della Robbias exchange info on me?”
“Mr. della Robbia was in the hospital and having trouble breathing. I gave him a nebulizer treatment, which took a long time. Isabel and I were talking. I told her I had a sister, Isabel, and I even had a roommate named della Robbia, but my roommate changed her name to O’Dwyer.
The two women looked at each other with an air of camaraderie that had eluded them during their roommate years.
“How old were you when you got married?”
“Sixteen. He was eighteen. We were so in love. My mother tried to separate us. She sent me to live with an uncle I had never met in New Orleans. I ran away. We eloped. We met in Tennessee and got married there. I fell in love with him when I was nine.”
“Are you going to get married again?”
“I don’t know. I love him. Adam did
n’t measure up.”
“I was so shocked when I saw him. I thought he would be short and skinny, like you. His parents are short. He’s so big. And his nose is so crooked.”
“He broke his nose three times. My nose was broken too.”
“But you can’t tell where yours was broken. How did you break it?”
“Oh, it’s a long story.” Lilly retreated to the melancholy that engulfed her whenever the rape came to mind.
Carly said, “Lilly, we all used to be curious about you. You came from nowhere.”
“I’ve got to go now.” Lilly gathered herself for escape.
“I’ll try my mother again tonight. Let me write down her address and phone number.” Carly was resigned to Lilly’s closing up whenever she broached personal questions.
“Write down Jane’s and Issy’s too.”
Carly walked Lilly to the front door. “I appreciate this.”
Lilly nodded and left.
That evening Tony studied a roadmap. He asked Lilly, “Is it really four hundred twenty-five miles? How long did it take to get there?”
“I only went once, by bus.” Lilly said. “EO figured if she left Jamestown at ten, she’d be in Yonkers at eleven that night. But she used to take breaks since she was driving alone.”
“I had no idea it was that far.”
“You really don’t have to go with me.”
Tony reached for Lilly. “I’ll call into work along the way. We’ll leave early, maybe five. We should be in Binghamton finishing breakfast by nine. We’ll be there by one, set up camp and rescue your friend by nightfall.”
***************
They left New York as planned at five a. m. Their journey began in silence. Tony drove fast, hoping to be far from the metropolitan area before rush hour started. They stopped at a rest stop for Tony to call work. Lilly walked back to the driver’s door, but Tony scooped an arm around her and escorted her to the passenger’s door.
Before he started the engine, he went through the music with care. They pulled out of the rest stop listening to the Pousette-Dart Band.
As he drove, Tony ran his hand along the inside of Lilly’s leg.
“Lillibelle?”
“ You rang?” She looked up from a Times movie review.
A Yonkers Kinda Girl Page 39
